NEW YORK  Under some ugly conditions, it was here that Eric Stults and the Padres really began to forge a beautiful relationship.

Pulled off the waiver wire little more than a week earlier, Stults started a road game against the New York Mets on May 24, a game that was delayed after two innings for more than an hour by a rainstorm. Stults went back out for the re-start, threw three more innings of shutout ball, allowing one hit and leaving only after a comebacker struck the triceps of his pitching arm.

The game was memorable for more reasons than one. Above all, the Padres scored 11 runs on 18 hits, an anomaly of offense in a miserable first half of the season. Stults was probably only with the Padres because, at that point, they already had 13 different players on the disabled list.

“I do like the ballpark,” said Stults, rematched against the Mets for Thursday’s series finale. “That wasn’t a great night to pitch, but we got the win, so that makes it a great night to pitch.”

Enthralled as the Padres were by the blowout, it was a lone win surrounded by nine losses. But it was also the first Padres win by Stults en route to his 8-3 record and 2.91 ERA, a couple of highlights in a season that didn’t have all that many. Even so, he wasn’t assured a starting role in 2013.

More than one person has told Stults that his repertoire and pitching is somewhat reminiscent of a former left-handed pitcher who’s now the Padres manager. Bud Black sees it, too.

“A little bit, yeah, a little bit,” said manager Bud Black. “We’re similar. Our curveballs are sort of the same. Seventy miles an hour with the big break, the 12-6. I didn’t change speeds on my fastball that he does. He’s got a high range, 90 down to 84. That’s a gift, to be able to vary speeds on your fastball. Slider’s about the same. He has a better change than I did. But similar.”

Quentin no worse for wear

Carlos Quentin came out of Monday’s season-opener without problem, a question only in that the sore-kneed Padres left fielder was run hard all over the outfield by Mets hitters putting the ball everywhere but right at him.

Black said.

“He didn’t get tested like that in spring training,” Black said. “They tested him right away, first hitter of the game, second hitter of the game, a lot of balls to the line and lot of balks to the gap. He got tested for sure.”

Kelly has procedure

Padres starting pitcher Casey Kelly, a right-hander who was expected to be one of the more promising rookies in the major leagues, was reported by the team to be doing well after his ligament-replacement surgery was performed by Dr. James Andrews in Pensacola, Fla.

Along with Cory Luebke and Joe Wieland, Kelly’s the third pitcher who likely would’ve been in the Padres’ rotation of 2013 to undergo the “Tommy John” procedure.